Google (News – Alert) has added a new category of apps for developers with changes to the developer edition of Chrome running on Windows, moving around categories on its Chrome Web Store. 

With this change, the “Apps” category only means the new class of packaged apps that are installed in Chrome, according to ZDNet.

“Packaged apps are written in HTML5, JavaScript and CSS (News – Alert) and designed to behave much more like native apps, most notably by having the ability to run without an Internet connection,” the report said.

Earlier in the year, Google announced the developer preview of Chrome packaged apps and the Chrome App Launcher, which allowed developers to upload Chrome packaged apps to the Chrome Web Store and test the app install flow. However, a Chrome packaged app was discoverable only if you had a direct link to it, not via searching and browsing the store.

Now, Chrome packaged apps will be available in theChrome Web Store for anyone on Chrome’s developer channel on Windows and Chrome OS. However, many of these apps are a “work in progress,” according to Amanda Bishop, product manager and (Web) storekeeper at Google.

“Many of these apps are works in progress, which is why we’re only making them easily available on Chrome’s dev channel,” Bishop wrote in a blog post. “If you’ve written a packaged app, or are working on one, now is a great time to get some early feedback and polish your app before Chrome packaged apps become more broadly available.”

Packaged apps offer the same capabilities as a native app, but as safe as a web page. Like web apps, packaged apps are written in HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS. But packaged apps look and behave like native apps, and they have native-like capabilities that are more powerful than those available to Web apps.